This week in RAD

What a grab bag of Rad and awesome this week.

Detroit's Motown Winter Blast is going on starting today.  Tonight I am going ice skating in Clark Park!





UConn 3rd string quarterback, Johnny McEntee releases trick shot video... then Cam Newton has to release his "workout" video.  Come on Cam, we know you're jealous.






Cam...




This weekend the Frontiers, the Journey Tribute Band, will be playing the Magic Bag in Ferndale.  I went to see them last year and all people could talk about was how they thought the Magic Bag had a live recording of Journey playing while these guys were on stage because they replicated their sound so well.  I will tell you this, go see them at least once!  Even if you don't like Journey you will appreciate how close these guys come to sounding just like them.  I hope the keyboard player is able to make it this time!









On Rollingstone.com you can listen to a lot of music for free.  Just go to www.rollingstone.com/albums and you can hear new full albums and new singles for free while you read the reviews.  I was blown away by how much free new stuff you can listen to!

Better Made for the Big Game

In my quest to promote for free anything made in Detroit I have friended a lot of Detroit Metro area businesses on Facebook and try to follow them on Twitter.


I saw this the other day and thought it was a cool idea from Better Made Snack Foods.  They are giving away a Super Bowl Party for 25 people with food from National Coney Island, Better Made Snack Foods,  Detroit Popcorn Company and Ackroyd's Scottish Bakery.

All you have to do is email them with your information then post a picture of you with Better Made Snack Foods on Facebook or Twitter @bettermade.  Go get some chips today and post those pics.  If I win I will definitely invite you all over!

Germack's at Western Market in Ferndale

I was shopping last Friday at The Western Market on 9 mile in Ferndale and saw some trail mix made by the Germack Pistachio Company from Detroit.  

I picked up some Rainbow's End American Trail Mix and it was tasty.  I proceeded to check out Germack's website and they have a TON of nuts, chocolates, snack mixes and other stuff.  I'll definitely be going back to Western Market for more and possibly order some of their stuff online, since I've already finished the bag.  Their Germack Mix looks rad.

Don't Call it A Come Back

It's 2011 and don't call it a come back.  I plan to start posting again about Food, Drink, Arts, Entertainment and anything else around the Detroit Metro Area and all around Michigan and even the universe.  Thank you all for following and please leave a comment!

Down with Detroit T Shirts

Down with Detroit is awesome for Detroit T shirts.  They recently had a Facebook contest to see who could come up with the best idea for their new T shirt.  This was the winner and you can buy it here

Detroit River Days 2010

Celebrating the friendly relationship that Detroit has with it's Canadian neighbor to the south (Windsor) this year is going to be rad at the Detroit River Days Festival happening June 18th - 21st in downtown Detroit. There are a ton of activities going on downtown from the fun run to the car show.  I have already been to the festival website a few times to double check the live music schedule because of what I saw.

Friday, the kickoff celebration starts with 90's alternative rockers Spin Doctors, who last performed in Detroit October 5th, 1991.  Now I was not much of a fan back in the day but think nostalgia!  I want a Spin Doctors T-shirt.  I had not clue these guys were still performing live.  Good for you Spin Doctors!  I am sure you will rock the waterfront.















Saturday Detroit will have the honor of welcoming to the Michigan Lottery Stage... MC HAMMER!  Last here on May 15th, 2009 at the Fox, I hope Hammer isn't "2 Legit 2 Quit" performing the song, "U Can't Touch This." Ooooohhhh oohhhhhh ooohhhhhh oooohhhh oooh ooh ohhh.  Actually it would be cool to see him do The Adam's Family Theme song from the movie.
















To top it all off, Sunday night, Blues Traveler will perform starting at 8:30pm.  What a tour de force of early nineties music!  No doubt John Popper will rock that harmonic.  I've heard he's lost some weight too (no joke).  Blues Traveler last came through Detroit for the Meadowbrook Music Festival July 24th, 2008.

If you get a chance to go down for one of these iconic artists at the Michigan Lottery Stage, please do not hesitate to send me pics or reviews.

Electronic Music Festival - Detroit

It's called the Movement and it starts today and goes until Monday night.  It's a festival celebrating techno music in Detroit, where techno started.  Located in Hart Plaza, the party goes all weekend and promises to be pretty rad... if you like techno.  I have been through my techno phase and came out the other side alive.  I don't mind some every once in a while but wouldn't say I follow the genre.  But if you want to get outside this weekend and dance Hart Plaza is the place to be.  At the festival's site www.movement.us you can view videos, read about the history of the festival and review the performance line up.  Don't forget your glow sticks!!!

The Heidelberg Rock Project

In 1986 Tyree Guyton, his grandpa and his wife started cleaning up Heidelberg St. in Detroit.  From the junk they collected they transformed vacant lots in to works of art.  The Heidelberg Rock Project is a benefit concert that will support a program for children to learn about the project and about art in general.  The concert takes place tonight at the Magic Stick.

Hendrix of the Ukulele

This guy is being hailed as a ukulele playing virtuoso like what Jimi Hendrix or Eddie Van Halen are to the the guitar, this guy is to the tiny Hawaiian instrument.  Rock on Jake Shimabukuro!  If you are in the Detroit area tonight Jake is playing at the Detroit Institute of Arts Friday Night Live event.  He will do one show at 7pm and one at 8:30pm.  The video is of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

This is A Real Company

If my basement had a leak I would definitely hire The Crack Team!

Who were the ad wizards???

Flower Day 2010, Eastern Market, Detroit

Flower Day is the one Sunday all year that Detroit's Eastern Market is open.  The flowers there come from all over Michigan (we bought some from Gaylord) and Canada.  They
dazzle the eyes with different shapes, sizes and colors.  People get there as early as 5am to browse and buy their annual, perennial and vegetable plants for the year.  This was our first year and I will say that, even though I am not a flower guy, it was rad!

Coffee was a necessity so we brewed some at home before leaving around 5:45am.  We arrived just in time for a killer parking spot right by the market.  We had heard that people bring wheelbarrows to lug their purchases around but didn't realize how creative people were with them.  So creative that an award for the best wheelbarrow is given away every year.  According to one guy we met, Larry always wins.  We were able to get what we needed without a wheelbarrow but it would have been a helpful so that I did not have to make three trips to the car.

By 9am when we left it was getting pretty packed so I'm glad we started early.  I even witnessed a wheelbarrow collision as we were leaving.  Flower Day 2010 was a great day for Michigan greenhouses and the Eastern Market.  It was also a great day for Detroit.  People will get downtown for events like this!

Here's what we got.

Detroit Hoedown 2010

The Detroit Downtown Hoedown is upon us once again.  Last year Willie Nelson closed the 3 day free country music festival put on by CBS Radio and 99.5 WYCD.  This year the headliners will be Dierks Bentley (Friday), Uncle Kracker (Saturday) and The Zac Brown Band (Sunday closer).  Other standouts include Longneck Strangler (Saturday, I just like their name), Bullhonkey deluxe (Sunday, like the name) and The Orbitsuns (Sunday, the play bingo night at 4 Green Fields).

The show is located in downtown Detroit at the Hart Plaza and includes 3 stages (river, lower and upper) for all day entertainment.  Here is a link to the schedule of performances and a $3 off coupon for any hat at one of the "Gone Country" booths.

Obi Kenobi

Last weekend I visited the Berkley Front on 12 mile for the Saturday night game 6 between the Red Wings and the San Jose Sharks.  Although the wings lost I won.  The Front has an awesome beer selection with over 40 beers on tap.  That doesn't include their unique mixed beers.  We decided to try the Obi-Kenobi (yes after Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars).  The Obi- is 1 half Bell's Oberon half Guinness Stout.  One word to describe it would be... RAD.  Get to the Front and try it... or make it at home.  The Guinness goes on top of the Oberon and stays there!

Got Gas?

I've just joined this website where you can find and report gas prices in your area, earn points and win prizes.  It's called gasbuddy.com and it has city sites like Detroitgasprices.com.  They have weekly prizes for free gas.  This weeks drawing ends today and I have one ticket for the drawing.  Come on free gas!  They also have let you know what the average gas price in the state you live in is and also if prices are going up or going down.  It's free to become a member and you can set up your profile with your favorite stations.

The Last Drag and the smoking ban in Michigan

Folks that are familiar with the bar scene all over Michigan will be headed out tonight for the last night of legal smoking inside Michigan's fine beer and liquor serving establishments.  Starting tomorrow, all the juke joints, holes in the wall, watering holes, pubs, taverns, clubs, lounges, and neighborhood bars will be under the watchful eye of Michigan's finest.  Having a cigarette indoors at one of these places will now be punishable by fine.  In order to celebrate this final night of cancer accelerating behavior, bar crawlers will be visiting all their favorites across Detroit's bergs, and I assume across Michigan, to smoke enough cigarettes to last them the total amount of time they plan to spend in a bar for the rest of their lives.

If you are one of the many then you have options for tonight.  In Ferndale, the Ruth Ellis Center and D. Erickson PR bring you the Take the Last Drag pub crawl.  The crawl will be lead by fashionable drag queens and will take smokers and non-smokers to all the hot spots like the WAB, Dino's and Como's.

At the Belmont Bar in Hamtramck owner Darren Grown will be hosting The Last Great Michigan Smoke Down to celebrate those who choose to smoke and those who don't.  Entertainment will be provided all night will a variety of Detroit bands.  Grown says that the party is to lament the loss of yet another personal freedom.  

Not all the last chance smoke events are against the ban.  In the same article it mentions The Magic Stick in Detroit will be ushering in a new era by having fun and celebrating both sides of the ban.  Also mentioned is the New Place Lounge in Dearborn.   

Whether you are for or against the ban I suggest you go out and celebrate tonight to support your local main street and business owners!

Awesome Site

www.politifact.com  

This site was featured on The Colbert Report last night and I though it was a great idea.  I think we need a fact checking site for the politicians in the city of Detroit!

Highlights include an Obama Promises kept-o-meter and the truth-o-meter!

Tigers Opening Day without a ticket

It was a cold opening day in downtown Detroit, but the fans and the win made it a little warmer inside my heart.  I was able to venture downtown to witness the craziness that surrounds the holiday of Tigers Opening Day.

I will admit that I did not get up and head down early like I planned.  In fact I was driving through downtown trying to find a (free) parking space around first pitch time.  I would usually have parked at the Greektown Casino but the line was long and only one of the structures was open.  Instead I went a little further out of the way to the Eastern Market parking (which is also free) and walked a little further towards Comerica.  While driving around I did get a lot a few pictures of just how crazy some of the sights were, and how expensive parking near Comerica was.  Do the prices change on opening day?  In front of the ballpark was almost like a state fair atmosphere with booths, vendors, food and activities.

After parking I walked about 10 minutes back into the Foxtown area and the ballpark down Brush St. to the Ellwood Bar.  It looked as though my chances of getting in to the park, not to mention a fine dining establishment while the game was going was very slim.  Other places I tried to get in were the Old Shillelagh and Cheli's Chili.  For a moment I thought about joining some fans trying to climb the fence for a peek, but decided against it.

Luckily during about the fourth inning I wondered into a place called Shotz at Greektown where I met my brother and some of his friends.  It was still extremely hard to get a beer if you did not have a seat at the bar but I could tell the staff was working as hard as they could given the circumstances.  The word around was that if you had a waitress it could take 1 hour to get food!  I will say they had ample standing room and plenty of TV's to catch the opening day action.

If I had to do it again I would definitely get downtown earlier to stake out a seat or seats before the game started.  I would also like to get actual tickets to the game but don't want to pay inflated food and beverage prices inside Comerica.

Go Hiking!

As the sun breaks and the snow melts now is the time to break the seal on your cabin door and head out into the wilderness and do some hiking.  That is exactly what I plan to do this spring with a trip to Moab, Utah and a visit to Arches National Park in the high Utah desert.  But you don't have to travel across the country to enjoy the outdoors.  There are plenty of ways to get your hiking fix here in the Detroit area.

I got on the website Trails.com and looked up hiking in Southeast Michigan and the Detroit Area and the site brought up a map that highlighted all the trails in my area.  From here I checked the websites of the ones I was interested in to find out more.  Trails.com gives the name, length and location of the trail on an easy to read map.  It also offers a short description of each trail and some helpful tips.  I looked at three hikes that vary in location and length.

1. Paint Creek Trail - length 8.9 miles, location - Rochester Hills - This trail is a hike through northern Oakland County that passes a local cider mill.  It was the first Rail-to-Trail conversion in Michigan.





2. Island Lake Recreation Area - length 12 miles, location - Brighton - This recreation area has two hiking loop trails that total 12 miles.  If you want to extend your stay there are campsites but the trails are pretty easy. Island Lake also offers canoe rentals (we've done this before), a shooting range and picnic facilities.



3. Proud Lake Recreation Area - length 21 miles, location - Commerce Township - This park offers 21 miles of trails and is the premier hiking destination in the Detroit area.  They also offer canoe and boat rentals along with biking trails.  If you want to make a weekend out of it there are two campsites one more rustic than the other.






I caught the hiking bug in college but have not been in a long while.  My wife and I are just getting back in to hiking and backpacking (camping along the trail for multiple days).  Along with these local trails my backpacking wish list also includes Isle Royal National Park and the Porcupine Mountains in the U.P.  If you are also interested in getting outdoors this spring and summer checkout Hiking Michigan, a free hiking club that offers info on group hikes, classes, camping, canoeing, kayaking and almost everything you need to know to get outdoors.

The Karate Kid

A new version of The Karate Kid is coming out this year starring Jackie Chan. This is the first feature length movie that I can remember seeing the original version as a kid, being a fan, and now not wanting to see the new version because it won't compare. First, Mr. Miyagi was from Japan, not China. Second, Daniel Son was from Jersey, not Detroit. Third, IT'S KARATE KID, not KUNG FU KID! Check out the IMDB page here.

But the movie is about a kid from Detroit who moves to China, not a kid from Jersey who moves to Racita, CA. So I am interested to see what landmarks will be included and how they portray the D.

Groupon is Rad!

So a couple weeks ago I joined this iffy email newsletter from Groupon.com. It promised to send me one Detroit coupon a day with insane deals for places all around Metro Detroit. And if enough people bought the coupon the deal would stand and if not they would not offer it. I figured that since all I really want to do for a living is find the rad needles in the haystack that is Detroit I would sign up and save some money doing it (since I'm for sure not making any money at it).

I will say that when I got my first few groupon offers (a massage parlor, a carpet warehouse, some place in Shelby, MI.) I was worried. But today it finally happened! The groupon today is to The Town Pump in downtown Detroit for $30 worth of pub grub and pints for only $15. And although I have already been to this fine establishment I purchased this groupon. At least now I have an excuse to go downtown again. I figure I spend about $30 on an average night out anyway. Why not throw some food in there too and take 50% off?

So as always I am promoting this RAD deal at groupon.com. If you want to sign up for this daily email you may have to weather some real bad deals (it's like clicking "dislike" on a Josh Ritter song for your Alt-Country Pandora station), I have a feeling that Groupon.com will come through for you like it has for me. And if you want to do me a solid by using my referral link I have pasted it here. If not I understand... I hate sending stuff like that to people.